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July 11, 2018
7:26 AM
With venerable trees reaching out to provide shade over sidewalks and expensive landscaping framing driveways Kingston had been one of the greener neighbourhoods of the city proper. Now all of that was simply more tinder for the fires indiscriminately gutting once proud estates and nouveau riche concept homes. Even as the sun rose of the second day of the Annihilist occupation its light was choked off by plumes of smoke, leaving the streets cast in flickering reds and oranges.
That ominous light would have still been preferable to the deep crimson pocked with dark spots rising from the crumbling remains of one of the larger homes. With violent thumping impacts a Terminus machine the size of a city bus turned on its end dug deep into the foundation while gangly metal arms long enough to reach across the street's cracked pavements ripped free chunks of brick and metal and glass and stone to construct something unseen. The unearthly energy lashed out in unpredictable directions like tap water diffused over the back of a spoon, causing small explosions anywhere it stuck something solid.
Meanwhile Omegadrones with wickedly barbed pikes were gathering another sort of raw materials: dozens of people, beaten and bloody, being marched single file toward the terrible pit.

July 10. 7 PM. Freedom City. Southside.
The city was a battleground. Omegadrones in the sky. Heroes everywhere. Broken glass and shattered buildings. Bodies in the streets. Doom had come to Freedom. Naturally, the civilians needed to get out of town. Equally naturally, there was zero chance they’d make it without a heroic escort. The convoy was big. Several buses and a multitude of private vehicles. Obviously, it wasn’t the only convoy, with Freedom being a city of literally millions. Heroes were spread desperately thin by the invasion of the Terminus, leaving only Prism and Mannequin to protect this particular convoy. Things had been relatively quiet. They had been noticed by Omegadrones, but other heroes had taken them on allowing the convoy to get across the river. It kept happening, too. But for now, everything was quiet as the vehicles rumbled down into the Southside to the trainyard. Planes were a no go, as Omegadrones could blast them out of the sky with little effort. And the highway had been jammed since 2. So, trains. Just had to get to the depot.

Sloane Manor North Bay, Freedom City New Jersey Thursday, July 12th, 2018 4:02 PM
Erick Sloane's beachfront villa in North Bay was far from untouched. The prior day's assault on Kingston left much of the surrounding upper-class neighborhoods in a state of disarray. And North Bay was no exception. Especially after an entirely new force from the Terminus emerged to fight against both the Resistance Force and the invading force. Ironically, it seemed as if for the first time in the history of Freedom City someone could make the claim that the Fens was the safest neighborhood to live in. Of course, most residents didn't have a sprawling underground headquarters in their villas.
A team of heroes had been risking their lives gathering and spreading information and equipment covertly to the Resistance in the city. The latest transmission pinpointed where one of the power sources for the device generating portals into the city was. Unfortunately, said generator was currently guarded by what had to be one of the largest armies of the Terminus sighted thus far. To make matters worse it was positioned deep inside the Raymond Nuclear Power Plant. Which had seen extensive renovations by Daedalus of the Freedom League to convert the plant into a virtual fortress. In short, any attempts to destroy the generator would be a suicide mission.
Foreshadow sent a recruitment transmission through his headquarter's computer with the hope that anyone nearby would answer the call. When Sea Devil, Singularity, and Cobalt Templar arrived they found piles of Omegadrone armors strewn throughout the sprawling manor. The inside of the home appearing as if an explosive had been set off with the stench of entropic energies wafting through the air. Having to step over the burnt and battered Omegadrones they would find an open bookshelf that at one point covered the staircase that led down into Foreshadow's Forebode. The computer's holographic display had a Power Pike sticking through it slightly covering the top leftmost point on the 3d layout of the Raymond Nuclear Plant. A hooded man stood in the center of the room his back turned to the staircase, a dark blue cape flowing in tatters.

Dakana Parliament
N'Gome ya Watu, Dakana
09:00 EAT (0:00 EDT) Thursday 12th July 2018
It was rare that all of the Clan representatives, both major and minor were all gathered in the main room of the parliament. Much more rare was that no one was arguing or trying to outdo the others, instead, they spoke in nervous hush tones. And whilst their nation had yet to be involved none of them, even the most isolationist of them, would dare suggest they do nothing, for an invasion from the Terminus was a threat to the entire world.
After a few moments one of the nations chief scientists, despite her young age, K'Sema moved to the center of the gathered representatives and with a swipe bought up a giant hologram of the globe. As King M'Balla raised a hand to silence everyone else she began to speak.
"As expected were have detected a vast amount of Terminus energies around Freedom City, but that's not the only place we discovered them. We've passed the information onto the Freedom League but we have a problem closer to home."
With a sweep of her hand, the map focused on Dakana itself, with one region in the south-west being illuminates, the Singing Hills. Due to a fluke of geology, the Daka crystals found below the hills had formed in perfectly linked crystal strata. This allowed to natural collect and store energy in their structure which caused them to give out a low-level hum that was disconcerting to both humans and animals alike. It also tended to build up and release energy at random making it difficult to operate electronics in the area. All this made the area more or less uninhabitable, even mostly ignored by those that kept Dakana's borders secure.
"We picked up an anomaly on the regions seismographs back on the 10th but paid it no heed, until we got news from America about the invasion, so we used a technology we'd been developing to use the natural frequencies of the area like a sonar and we've formed an image."
The hologram changed to that of some sort of massive structure though apparently much of the image was made up of best guess and still it looked menacing in its structure.
"Our best guess is that they're using the crystals to generate powers four there other structure on the planet. We're can't even guess at how it operates but it should be easy to shut it down safely."
"Why can't we just bombard the place before they become more of threat? If they send people out to capture the sacred mountain or even the Beast itself?" ask one of the representatives
"The feedback from that or any large-scale assault could cause a catastrophic feedback loop in the crystal below destroying them and most of the hill. The environmental damage would be catastrophic with that along, not to mention possible harm from terminus infused materials." having said her piece K'Sema stepped back to allow the parliament to discuss a solution to the problem.
For the next hour, the parliament debated how to deal with this discovery, whilst still performing their ancient duty to guard the caged beast, with every one of them getting a chance to speak their piece. Finally, it was decided that the Dakana army would prepare itself to defend the sacred mountain, whilst a small band of heroes would go and hopefully destroy the structure.
Naturally, the two defenders of Dakana would go on this dangerous mission as well as some assistance from experts from outside the country that could assist them in their own way.

July 10, 2018
8AM
Joan Collier's soothing voice greeted Freedom City's commuters on July 10; those that didn't already have today off anyway. "All of Freedom has turned out for what may be the largest gathering of metahumans in recent history; a commemoration of the death of the Centurion twenty-five years ago-"
In the waters off the coast of North Bay, Aquaria watched as Jessie and Baxter played fetch in the surf. Tourists usually didn't come to the beach by the airport, which made it the perfect spot for locals in the know looking to get away - especially when one of them generally couldn't be seen by human eyes. They'd brought their gear, just in case superheroing turned out to be necessary; but this was supposed to be a day off.
In Bedlam City, Anna Cline was up early with her plate of breakfast sausage and eggs and a live newsfeed. Thanks to the satellite hookup her sidekick had made, she didn't even have to see the stupid Bedlam talking heads.
In Britain, UNISON heroes Mark Lucas and his wife Monsoon were eating lunch in Vanguard's headquarters, their son sitting on his father's lap. It had been a good teamup.
Woodsman slept late that morning, curled up in his tent screened from the bushes, his motorcycle chained to a nearby tree. Next stop, Minneapolis.
The Omegadrone called Harrier sat in his house with his woman and was content. The cameras were off and the world outside them quiet. This was a day when neither of them needed to go out.
In Emerald City, Washington, Citizen backed himself up that morning, prompted by one of several emails Miss Americana had sent him that night. After that, it was time for a morning speech to the Archetech staff, and then maybe time to get to work?
In the VIP section of the audience in Riverside Park, Fast-Forward sat alongside his wife, occasionally shooting a glance over at Wail elsewhere in the crowd of dignitaries. He hadn't seen a crowd of supers this big since...well, since 2013.
Elsewhere, Heyzel remembered "And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father" - but found the holy words bitter comfort.
9AM
"Thanks for that, Carl - that was Carl Stallone on location with the Freedom League Auxiliary and True North in Greenland, where it seems one giant rock monster found that it bit off - more than it could chew." Joan frowned, as if judging her teleprompter, before continuing.
In an undisclosed wing of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Ashley and Jaycee sat in a room free of any electronics and ate breakfast together - practice for that fall. "So, uh, are you really a...a lesbian?" Jaycee asked Ashley while she was sipping her orange juice. Ashley was a veteran superhero and Secret Service agent. She managed to swallow it.
11AM
And all at once, psychics and mystics across the city screamed in mixed terror and pain as they felt the very stuff of the universe be violated -
- And Harrier crashed to the floor without so much as a sound escaping his lips -
- And the sky ripped open above the assembled crowds like the tearing of some great and terrible wound, and with the sound of hellish trumpets the Omegadrones poured forth from the sky like so many locusts-
NOON
The image of Captain Thunder and the Alpha Omegadrone, plunging together into the base of the Sentry Statue and sending it tumbling to the Earth amid belching smoke and flame, remains one of the most infamous images of the Invasion of 2018-
Fast-Forward felt his tendons pull as he runs his way through the city, grabbing people and running them out, but he doesn't care - not yet, not time for that-
-And in the center of the city something happenned to the DuTemps Building; great black wriggling things like umbral tentacles spread across the building from the castle downward, enveloping the entire structure like a squid around its prey before tentacles and castle alike vanish altogether
1PM
"A body count already estimated to be in the hundreds and-yes, I've just gotten word that the portal in Liberty Park has been closed but that the crisis is not over-"
2PM
"YOU CAN EVADE REALITY BUT YOU CANNOT AVOID THE CONSEQUENCES OF AVOIDING REALITY!" cried Abby Brio from her throne, the great golden chair glowing above the burning remains of the Ashton neighborhood, the chair itself cast in an eerie light by the great green dome overhead, flanked by Omegadrones.
5PM
"And we are reporting now that the Freedom League has been driven away from the enemy fortress in Kingston as well, thus leaving two Terminus strongholds right in the heart of Freedom City." It was shortly after this moment that Joan Collier handed her desk off to someone else.
8PM
The sun is setting. There are war councils afoot and civilians being rescued. The skies are red, but stars glow defiantly through them. There are bodies in Kingston and Ashton, and terrible things are being done to the dead - and very soon to the living.
Omegadrones are flying - and the Sentry Statue is still burning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fju9o8BVJ8

July 12th, Third Day of the Terminus Invasion
2248 Hours
Briefing Room A1, Subbasement Level 1, Claremont Academy
In the hours and days following the Invasion, only few safe areas remained for the citizens of Freedom. One of them was Claremont Academy, as it turns out the Summers had planned for the eventual inevitability, the Academy was prepared for an attack.
Or at least, that had been the expectation. As it turned out, the systems themselves could not hold off the hordes of bodies being thrown at them, and what heroes had made it to the Academy spent their time in shifts, assisting with the defence to the best of their ability. The Subbasement was, for the time, fully secured, and the dorms were filled up with people receiving first aid and doing their best to recover before heading out into the fight once more.
Walking through the hallways, one had to avoid stumbling over weapons, equipment and clothing, hastily thrown away, with nobody having the energy to try and keep things organized. Keeping up the fight was more important. Which was why a small crowd of heroes had been gathered in the briefing room, for a top-priority assignment.
The group was being briefed by headmistress of Claremont, Callie Summers herself. It was a simple briefing, no fancy graphics, no extended speeches, just right down to business. “As you may have noticed yourself, the Annihilists have changed their method of attack. They’ve incapacitated multiple people and dragged them off, something that we’ve been trying to keep under wraps as good as possible in order to preserve some degree of morale. “
“Now, I’m not telling you this for nothing. Our scouts have managed to track down the location these people have been brought to, the College. We need to get them out, and with every minute that passes, they are in more danger. As are we. I need you to get in and extract them. We have no idea how many people are being held there, or what exactly is being done to them. “
“This will be dangerous. You will probably see things I wouldn’t want anybody to see. You will face what we can only assume is a massive force of enemies. We won’t be able to keep up any radio contact, you will be on your own. But don’t ever forget this, all of these people rely on you. This is your chance to save potentially dozens of lives, while also dealing a major blow to our enemies. “
“Now, any final questions? The faster we’re done with this, the more people you can save.”

July 13, 2018
Midnight Manor
Even now, Midnight Manor was one of the safest places in Freedom City. "Sea Devil and Singularity have made contact with Foreshadow. The plan is in motion." Redbird had been more subdued than usual lately - hadn't they all? Even with the evacuations the dead, wounded, and missing in Freedom City were four, maybe five figures; not to mention the heroes, no, the friends they'd lost.
"Good." Through his radio link to the Manor, Harrier spoke with the slow, deliberate intonations of a man whose breathing came with difficulty. "Are you prepared?" He'd done his best to help them. They had a map of their destination, a rough sketch of its likely defenses, and more besides - Steve had stayed up all night, multiple nights, dictating to Redbird when Wander and Midnight had been deployed to the action. There was very little else he could do.
While the others talked, Mark studied the screens showing the continued carnage of the fight in Freedom City - maybe it was all confined to an isolated few areas this time, maybe this was just touches of Hell on Earth instead of the real thing. He closed his eyes and thought of Nina and Richie, safely away from all this - unless all this spilled out over everything, and took them just like it had taken his friends in the DuTemps Building.
When we get back here - I need to fix things.

July 11, 2018
4:17 PM
The ambulance didn't bother with its sirens as it rode deeper into the West End. It wasn't as though the laws of the road were being enforced just then and drawing attention would have only made it a better target. The missing passenger side door and twisted remnants of a front bumper testified that the blocky vehicle - and its operators - were lucky to still be in reasonably working order. The way it screeched around two abandoned cars wrapped around each other in the middle of an intersection, lifting up onto two wheels briefly, said that those close calls hadn't made them any more timid.
It wasn't a hospital where it came to a stop but the Summerhill Street Farmer's Market of all places. Stands normally stocked with ears of corn and handmade candles had been repurposed into temporary shelters and soup lines, tarps and truck beds and trash bins call called into whatever use was most immediately needed in the chaos of the previous day. People forced to flee their homes or unable to return to them, people too injured or old or simply unwilling to attempt to flee with city entirely had gathered in the convenient open space, stocked with food and running water.
The rear doors of the ambulance opened and a muscular man with sleeve tattoos and a blood caked concert tee that barely fit vaulted out. "I got a broken leg and a couple kids that got separated from their folks!" Hernandez called to the able bodies already jogging over to meet him. "Somebody grab me something to use for a splint, I'm using shitty ass rebar over here!"